


summit

by kyu (dazaicat)



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, M/M, au where ash has a cellphone & uses it for its intended purpose, canon ending ?? dont know her., mentions of blood and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 11:36:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dazaicat/pseuds/kyu
Summary: instead of taking a nap in the library, ash makes a phone call.





	summit

_My soul is always with you._

It’s those last few words that shake him out of it, send him scrambling with numb hands into the pockets of his blood-spattered clothes.  


His fingers come away slippery with blood, and his hands are shaking when he tries to unlock the phone. It takes a few tries, smearing red across the touchscreen, but he manages eventually. The phone rings once—twice—and then Max’s voice rings from the speaker.

Ash stares at it, numbly, before he figures out how to turn the volume up. 

“…Ash? _Ash?_ What the hell is going on—”

“Come get me, Max,” Ash mumbles into the phone, before it slips from his grip and clatters down to the floor. 

It’s warm, so _warm_ , and Ash curls into the warmth as the bright lights of the library blur, dark static creeping in at the edges. His last thought is of snow, nonsensically, a glaring expanse of frost-cold white and sunlight reflecting off the surface. 

He doesn’t dream.

* * *

He doesn’t dream, but he _does_ wake up; for a moment the glaring light and the cold reminds him of the library, and he almost expects to find hard wood and tear-stained sheets of paper under his cheek.

“You’re awake,” someone says off to the side. Ash blinks in their general direction, waiting for the bright blur to resolve itself. It doesn’t, and his head hurts, and it’s so _cold_ all of a sudden, and something vitally, _vitally_ important is missing, and he can’t figure out what it is for all of a minute before it hits him—

“Eiji,” Ash croaks. His lips feel like cotton wool. “Where—?”

“He’s fine.” The voice pauses for a moment, and the tone filters in. “We pretty much had to drag him out of here to get some sleep, he’ll be back in the morning,” says the _weary-resigned-wry_ voice, so very familiar, and then the memories filter in too.

“Max?” Ash blinks harder at the blob next to the bedside, but there’s too much _white_ and everything is too smudged for him to make out. 

A straw pushes itself past his lips. “Here.” 

The lukewarm water is tasteless, but Ash is suddenly _thirsty_ like he’s never been before in his life; he almost chokes, and the straw leaves his lips for a moment so that he can gasp in air and go at it more slowly. 

“We almost lost you,” Max says, quiet and hard. Something in Ash’s chest twinges even through the painkiller haze, even as the little details come rushing in; the off-white cotton sheets, the strikingly turquoise throw over his thighs, the sharp prick of a needle at his forearm. The steady, quiet buzz, and the sorrow in Max’s voice.

“Still here,” Ash tells him. His voice sounds weak to his own ears. “Old man,” he adds, because it seems appropriate.

Max’s quiet snort cuts through the buzz. “Never change, do you? Sassing me even on death’s doorstep.”

A rough, warm hand covers his own. “I’m glad you called,” Max says, low and serious like he’s dragging every word out from somewhere that hurts. “Eiji… I don’t know how he’d have taken it, if you didn’t. Any of us, really.” Max laughs, hollow, and it cuts off just as abruptly as it begins. “You’re shit at taking care of yourself, you know that, kid? But I’m glad you’re here.” The hand squeezes, once, twice, and then Max lets go.

_Eiji,_ Ash thinks, and then the world is not just white and hazy but also _wet_ and _warm_ on his cheeks. 

“I’ll give Shunichi a call,” Max says, sounding further away than he was a second ago. “He’ll want to know you’re awake.”

That’s—good, but not _enough_ , Ash thinks. “Eiji?”

“Yeah,” Max agrees. “Him too. Rest.”  


There’s not much else to do, so Ash sinks back into the cool pillows and the relative darkness behind his eyelids, and waits for Eiji.

* * *

He wakes, again, somehow thirstier than before.

Something cool brushes against his forehead, a gentle swipe pushing his hair back, and when he blinks his eyes open a second time the first thing he focuses on is Eiji’s face. 

“Ash,” Eiji whispers. Like his name is a fragile thing, liable to shatter at any moment if Eiji says it too hard. Something in Ash’s chest hurts in answering sympathy.

“Eiji,” Ash tells him back, because he wants him to stop looking like he’s about to cry but can’t find the words. The IV drip stings when he pulls at it, hand halfway to Eiji’s face before he realizes; Eiji catches his wrist, like he’s about to put his hand back down, before he brings it the rest of the way up to his own face instead. 

His cheek is warm against Ash’s palm. Eiji’s eyes are clear, and dark, and solemn.

“I promised myself I will not cry again,” he tells Ash, “so I won’t.” 

“Good,” Ash tells him, still captivated by the feeling of Eiji’s presence and the warmth against his fingertips, so unexpectedly _alive_ and _here. “_ Don’t want you to.”

Eiji smiles, and it’s like the sun breaking over the horizon. It’s almost too much, but Ash can’t look away; reaches for the smile before he can think twice, fingertips skating over Eiji’s cheek down to his mouth. There’s a sad curve to it, and he traces over that, over the corner of his mouth like he can smooth it out somehow, wipe the sadness away until only Eiji’s smile is left. 

“I don’t know how to say this, Ash,” Eiji admits. “I didn’t expect you to come. I hoped—dreamed, maybe, yes, but I didn’t think you would.” 

That hurts, because Ash knows it’s fair. 

“But,” Eiji goes on, “I didn’t expect this, either.”

“This?” Ash says, voice scratchy and hoarse even as he _knows_ what Eiji means.

“ _This_ ,” Eiji echoes, voice unyielding. “You, in a hospital, bleeding out. Did you know, Ash? They called me the moment my plane landed in Japan.”

“I’m sorry.” He can feel his throat close up; he can’t tell if it’s regret or tears.

“No, Ash,” Eiji says, and it’s so suddenly _gentle_ that any hopes Ash had of not breaking down in front of him melt like snow in spring. “I’m glad you’re alive. I thought—the whole time, when they told me you were admitted, I was so scared that I’ve seen you for the last time. That I left you alone and you were gone forever.”

“You don’t have to protect me, Eiji.”

Something flickers in Eiji’s face at that. A hint of sorrow, some distant anger, sharp and wistful. “No,” he says, and his fingers tighten on Ash’s wrist as if to emphasize the words. “I want to, but that’s because— I don’t want you to _need_ protection, Ash. You deserve that, at least.”

The tired laugh bubbles up even with the lump in his throat. “Deserve? Eiji, you know me.”

“Yes, I do. And I know that—I’d do anything, so you can have a life where you don’t have to carry a gun with you at all times. A life where you can be safe.”

“There’s no _safe_ for people like me,” Ash tells him, and the words feel like ash in his mouth. “I’m not _safe_ , Eiji. You think there’s a happy ending for me? What about you? _You_ deserve better than—”

“—than what, Ash?” Eiji says, eyes flashing. 

“Me,” Ash says, defeated.

Eiji doesn’t say anything for a long moment. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, finally. It’s so quiet Ash only hears it because every cell in his body is trained on Eiji. “I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. I’ll prove it to you someday.”

“You _know_ me _,”_ Ash repeats, and it sounds like he’s pleading this time. “Why, Eiji? Why all the effort?”

“You are a good person, Ash. Even if you don’t believe it.”

“I’ve killed people.”

“So have I.”

“I didn’t _want_ you to,” and he _hates_ the way his voice cracks on that, “and it’s not the same. We’re not the same, Eiji, and I don’t want you to live like that.”

“Then let’s not.” Eiji tugs at his wrist, and Ash’s hand drops from his cheek. Eiji wraps both hands around his palm, thumb brushing across his knuckles, dry and warm and gentle. “Come to Japan with me, Ash.”

There is nothing in the world he can deny Eiji, in the end, Ash thinks. He doesn’t know why he pretended otherwise.

“You sure you still want me to?” A final token protest, even as he can hear the answer already without asking—

“Yes. I still do,” Eiji tells him, solemn, and then he smiles. “Together, yes?”

It’s a smile Ash can’t help but echo with a weak one of his own. 

“Yeah. Together.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> and then they lived happily ever after and max adopted ash and everyone who has ever hurt ash on purpose just straight up died. this is the true ending. this is my ninja way


End file.
